Coronavirus Florida: West Palm firefighter-turned-author heading back to fire service

Leslie Gray Streeter @lesliestreeter

Thursday

Apr 9, 2020 at 4:30 PM

Coronavirus Palm Beach County updates: The firefighter-turned-author, is turning back to his original profession to help fight the coronavirus.

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Patrick Kendrick recalls a conversation he had in a mystery writers’ group he belongs to when a fellow member said "You used to be a firefighter."

Indeed, Kendrick, who joined the City of West Palm Beach Fire Rescue department in the 1980s and retired from Tamarac Fire Rescue in 2012, has kept up his relevant certifications and still works as a contractor with the Department of Defense to train soldiers in emergency response.

But for nearly a decade, he’s also been an award-winning mystery writer, with titles like "The Savants" and "Extended Family."

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Now, in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, the 64-year-old West Palm Beach resident will temporarily hang up his pen and head back into fire service.

At the end of the month, he’ll serve as a chief fire officer for the state’s Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee to assist with its coronavirus efforts. He will be the information liaison between two branches that encompass fire departments and chiefs, forestry, Civil Air Patrol and government agencies, among other things.

"It’s great being a firefighter. You want to be useful," Kendrick says. "I have the technical abilities, the organizational background to be able to use. Firefighting is a very fluid situation. You’re meeting people on their worst day."

He learned about the position through Tamarac Fire Chief Percy Sayles, who Kendrick mentored, and with whom he’d stayed in touch. Kendrick said Sayles got a call from the Florida Fire Chiefs Association looking for people. "But everyone is so overwhelmed with their own cities and county governments they were reaching out to retired people who still have their fingers in the business," Kendrick said.

Not being able to stay away from his first profession seems like a habit for Kendrick.

A year after his "retirement" from firefighting, he began training with the DOD, all thanks to one of those calls from a friend.

He said a friend from West Palm Beach called. They "asked if I wanted to get out of the house for a while.

"Fire service is very social. Writing on the other hand is the loneliest profession. It was nice to hear voices again and work with old friends."

He keeps his professional licenses up to date and is still certified.

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"It stays with you," he said. "I missed it a lot more than I thought I would."

He’s set to go to Tallahassee April 23 and work for about two weeks. In the meantime he awaits the publication later this year of his latest book, "American Ripper: The Enigma of America’s Serial Killer Cop" about Florida law enforcement officer and killer Gerard John Schaefer.

"Writing is a way of helping," says Kendrick, "but it’s not the same as seeing communities get help."